Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
steamships in Bombay harbour and proceeded through the
triumphal arch of the Gateway of India.
The Gateway remains a perch for disrespectful pigeons today,
and a shelter from the monsoon or the burning summer sun. No
foreigner will march in triumph through it to rule Indian soil again.
Built to vie with the splendour of the monuments of the Raj, the
Taj still stands a mere thirty-odd yards from that dramatic emblem
of British conquest, a constant reminder of who won the right to
govern India in the end.
Ironically, the hotel also serves as a monument to the man who
dreamed it into existence. Sadly, Jamsetji Tata did not live to preside
over its opening ceremony in 1904.
This newest wonder of the East opened with great fanfare. It
instantly gained many admirers - and fierce hostility from the Raj
establishment. Until then, the major hotel in Bombay had been
Watson's Annexe.
Today the Watson's building stands as a weary, disintegrating
structure called Esplanade Mansions, waiting to die. Symbolic
gestures must run in the Tata genes, because Jamsetji's descendants
purchased Watson's old Annexe in 1944, presumably to watch bad
memories crumble into dust with it.
Raj hostility to the affront of Tata's Taj manifested itself in a number
of insidious ways. One rumour claimed the hotel had been designed
by a French architect who spent many months in Bombay modifying
and fine-tuning his conceptual drawings and plans, and then returned
to France to convalesce from illness and the rigours of the Indian
climate. When he returned to view his completed hotel, he found
every detail of his elaborate plans expertly followed through in stone,
with one exception: the entire building had been built back to front.
Seeing his imposing entranceway positioned on a narrow back street
instead of facing the spectacular panorama of harbour and sea proved
too much for the man to bear. He took a pistol, according to this
story, and blew out his brains.
In fact, an Englishman named Chambers designed the Taj. The
building was positioned according to plan, to give sea-facing rooms
the view and a westerly breeze to cool them, while rooms at the rear
overlooked elaborate gardens. The entrance was placed for easy
